Siloed organizations can struggle with employee collaboration across their business units. Not only does this disrupt the flow of information about your customer, but it can also isolate your workforce. People need to collaborate and engage their fellow colleagues to feel a sense of togetherness. Building an interactive and collaborative environment is crucial for employee engagement and retention, and it can also affect your bottom line. 

 

So how does an enterprise get their employees to engage each other in a collaborative environment? Does this culture need to be ingrained in the organization’s DNA? The answer is, yes and no. The market is seeing an influx of employee collaboration tools through various social channels and enterprise gamification. Depending on your organizational infrastructure, a gamified process could be a quick fix for your employee engagement woes. However, it may depend on the characteristics of your workers and your existing infrastructure. One thing I’ve learned—hire people who want to be collaborative.

 

I recently joined Bluewolf to build consulting teams for our Bluewolf Beyond practice in both Denver, Colorado, and Portland, Oregon. Collaboration is so key to our agile approach that getting this wrong would not only cost Bluewolf clients, but my ability to sleep soundly. As I start building, here’s what I will be listening for:

But the truth is, desire is not enough—how do we make it happen? Here are three suggestions for creating a more collaborative environment:

1. Use the tools. 
   A friend recently switched careers from a company with minimal collaboration tools to one with many. The tools enabled a level of collaboration that he didn't realize was possible. Video chat has an impressive ability to change the speed and tenor of a conversation—he felt connected. Whether it's instant messaging, video chat or group collaboration feeds, use the tools. If people aren't using them, start using them and pulling others in. One request: don't use a tool to communicate with someone who sits near you.
2. Work on something meaningful together.
   Doing meaningful work strikes a chord in people that results in more energy, enthusiasm, creativity and results. Does it have to be huge, critical to the company, or rich in purpose? That's always awesome—but we're also talking meaningful with a small "m" here. It simply has to be important to the participants. It could be a simple process improvement in your work or a side project.
3. Cooperation does not equal collaboration.
   We don't really want to ask for someone's "full cooperation" in the workplace, do we? Collaboration is more than cooperation and it isn't automatic—you're going to have to work at it. Rather than provide another list of important behaviors (listen first, assume positive intent...), I'll suggest just one—build trust. If we trust each other, we collaborate more effectively.

Collaboration between employees creates an engaged workforce and has reverberating impacts throughout your organization, from employee retention to customer engagement. As my team at Bluewolf grows in shared experiences, number, and geography, I will regularly return to these three messages. If you agree with the above, consider applying for a job at Bluewolf.